


Who’s Coming With Me

by PaxDuane



Series: By Writ and Lips [9]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Bets, M/M, Pining, Priest AU, Sparring, Thorn is very good, against someone who can't staff fight, he just did not expect that, kind of, lbr it's pining, staff fighting without the staff, this was fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:49:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25291927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaxDuane/pseuds/PaxDuane
Summary: Dogma and Fox didn't exchange commlinks. Thorn sees a problem with this, makes a bet, and only somewhat regrets it. See if he ever spars with Dogma (or Kix at this point) again.
Relationships: Dogma (Star Wars)/CC-1010 | Fox, mentioned
Series: By Writ and Lips [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805827
Comments: 14
Kudos: 91





	Who’s Coming With Me

**Author's Note:**

> This does discuss some of Dogma and Fox's hang ups on going forward with a relationship, but only barely. Also, in regard to age and experience gap, it's a 18-19 year old who's seen the front lines of war regularly and a 21-22 year old who deals with politicians and criminals regularly. It's weird, there's a bit of a _hmm_ about it, but it's not horrible. 
> 
> Meanwhile, hinting at Thorn/Rex.

Domino Squad, Dogma thinks blandly, is made of blustering idiots.

Droidbait hits the wall across from Dogma and gets right back up to run at the Captain. The entire squad is going at him. Dogma’s not sure the Captain has broken a sweat.

“Damn,” a familiar voice says, coming up on Dogma’s side. “That’s hot.”

Dogma raises his eyebrows and looks over at Commander Thorn. “Did you really come here to ogle the captain?”

“I came to spar with him,” Thorn says, grin wicked. “We have a standing bet.”

“Terrible,” Dogma says, shaking his head. “You know, I’ve been warned not to get cornered by you.”

“Foxy’d toss me across the room faster than Rex’ika if he knew I was standing next to you. Doesn’t want us bothering you. You could probably murder the Chancellor and get away with it, right now, he feels that awkward about it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Dogma shakes his head again; he’d doubt it even if it were something he’d have an inkling to test on his own.

“You two ever get around to exchanging commlinks? I was serious about needing someone to make him _sleep_.”

“It was a one-time thing,” Dogma assures him. So what if he’s interested? So what if Hod wants to see “Red” again, as he’s taken to calling Fox in only the last three days? Dogma’s not going to pressure the man.

“Doubt,” Thorn says cheerfully. “Come on, vod. Bet it’s just ‘cause you’re Rex’s vod’ika, and Rex is _his_ vod’ika. You’re _young_. He doesn’t want to pressure you. He does like you, though. Rex came by to talk about the front. Dropped your name, something about how you’re a good scout,” probably the landslide opportunity he spotted that let them take out two and a half battalions of B1s, “And Fox was all sorts of attention.”

“Doubt,” Dogma snaps right back. The idea makes his heart beat a little faster, but it’s probably not the whole truth.

“Tell you what, vod,” Thorn says, actually turning his body to the younger clone now. “You beat me on the mat and I’ll give it up.”

“And what do you get if I agree then lose?” Dogma asks, glaring.

“I’ll get your commlink, which will be delivered directly to Fox. And you’ll let me give you his,” Thorn says, smiling.

The logical part of Dogma’s brain likes what he’ll win. The traitorous part of Dogma’s brain likes what he’ll lose.

“Fine. Clear the mat,” Dogma says, nodding to where the Captain has picked Domino down to the Corporals, both of whom are waning.

Thorn stares incredulously at him. “Clear the mat?”

“You’re going to tell the Captain we’re sparring.” Dogma slots his gaze over to him. “Well?”

Thorn rolls his eyes then steps forward. “’Eyy, Rex’ika. Don’t be a sadist.”

Rex ducks under Fives’s sloppy punch. “Thorn?”

“Stop dancing them,” Thorn whines. “Give someone else the mat.”

Rex narrows his eyes, tossing Echo over his shoulder. “Who are you sparring with in _my_ barracks?”

Dogma huffs as Thorn motions to him, already regretting this. Still, he doesn’t deny it or try to back out of it.

Rex’s eyes bug out. “No, no way,” he says, tossing Fives off the mat.

“I already agreed, Captain,” Dogma says.

Rex stalks over to them, Echo still over his shoulders. “Thorn.”

“Call Kix, I’ll be fine,” Dogma interjects. Rex has seen him spar, yes but…

Dogma’s going to do his Buir proud with this one. Not any other trainer’s rote. Just Jango’s. Even without the orar’bevise, he could hold his own against the Alphas.

Rex doesn’t know that. No one here does—not even Kix.

Rex’s jaw tenses. “Fine. I’ll call Kix; we’ll record this to play at your pyre. Don’t start until the medic gets here.”

Dogma steps aside to grab a bottle of water as the Captain drops Echo on the floor, into an exhausted puddle, and goes to comm Kix. He tosses another one to Thorn and sets a third one on Echo’s head.

Once they get the signal that Kix is on his way, they both cross onto the mat, standing across from each other.

Thorn is wearing the bottoms of his blacks, rolled up to just under the knee, and a tank top. He straightens up, popping his neck.

Dogma’s in full blacks, but he shucks his boots off. He needs full mobility for this, and it’s been long enough that he’s not sure he’s got that in standard boots anymore. He rolls his sleeves up to over his elbow but leaves his uppers on. He doesn’t need catcalls about the hickeys still fading from the other night.

Kix is the only one who’s actually seen them at this point, thankfully, because he felt the need to drown Dogma in bacta after he came back from the Guard barracks. And he doesn’t need anyone else with blackmail on him. He may not be ashamed about what happened, may be interested in more, but that doesn’t mean he wants _Torrent_ to know.

He rolls his head, barely glancing at where Rex is taking point. Apparently, this spar needs a judge as well as a medic.

Kix, he knows, is going to kill him for this.

The medic in question comes into the room, already sour.

Dogma falls into his first staveless position, sending murmurs through the vode hanging about. It’s not his usual.

Thorn drops lower, set more for a brawl. Dogma supposes that would be a good option, considering a staveless fight can look like one.

It’s going to make him slow though.

Rex works his jaw a bit before, begrudgingly, he calls, “Begin.”

Dogma darts forward, but he uses the foot he’d already extended out as his lead to make his movement smooth. Thorn’s already coming up with a jab for his side but he’s grabbing the extended arm from the underside of the bicep and _wrenching_ so Thorn’s shoulder goes down while he swings up and over the older clone.

He pulls Thorn along by the upper arm, swinging him right back over and, since the commander doesn’t know this style, right into the mat.

He stands and backs up jerkily, overplaying smaller mechanics to bring his arms back up. This time it’s his second position, even closer to the brawling position that Thorn started with but, instead of the fists from first that would make it almost the same position, he has his palms out. One facing the floor, one nearly lax but twisted to the back wall.

Thorn recovers and comes for him, a jab of a punch that could have put him right into Dogma’s chest.

But either way, fighting around an orar’bevi means you need to move like a two-dimensional object in three-dimensional space.

Be paper, slide past him.

With the hand that was facing the back wall, Dogma slaps the side of Thorn’s neck, just below the jaw, and sends him stumbling. With the palm that faced the floor, he brings it up to the ceiling and barely passes the commander’s ear. It should have hit right under his jaw.

Again, Dogma pulls back. Fifth position, standing straight and neutral but with coiled tension.

When Thorn moves again, Dogma goes with it, flows with it. Forward, cross hand on his hip and other going down. Not wrenching him up, but using him as a solid, if moving, base.

Dogma slides under Thorn’s legs and comes out on the other side, hopping up and slamming his elbow into the space between Thorn’s shoulders. That’s when he knows he’s lost.

Thorn drops and swipes Dogma’s feet out from under him, grappling him. “You know, vod,” he says, breathing heavy, “Didn’t expect that but figures. No wonder Foxy likes ya.”

Dogma flips them over, because he’s lost but he knows how to bring someone down with him. “Learned from the best.”

Thorn grins. “Gotta say…didn’t expect your attention to detail to go beyond those…pretty pictures you left on Fox’s hips. Wasn’t sure how someone who could put four pointed stars on someone’s skin with their teeth would fight.”

Dogma snarls, mind going blank behind the instinct, and he brings up his arms. This is how he knew he’d lost—once your opponent was down you needed something with a little range to finish them unless you planned on waiting until they got up to put them down again and again and again. Jango was good at that. Dogma needed to be too.

Thorn takes the opportunity to grapple Dogma back down, shoving him chest first and getting his arms behind his back so he can’t sure them. He has barely any leverage.

Rex starts a count.

He knows how to bring someone down with him. Thorn’s knees are both to his side. He’ll have the mobility to really kriff Dogma up, but he’s going to _hurt_ even more than he was before he made that mistake.

Using his arms and Thorn as a fulcrum, Dogma swipes his legs around, to the opposite side of where Thorn’s knees are firm against the mat, and he kicks up. It twists him out of Thorn’s hold, but Thorn is already lunging at him.

He brings his legs up and over, landing him with his side against Thorn’s back and his knees hating the pressure he just put them under and his arms aching. Thorn could go for five more minutes, energy wise. He can’t.

Dogma digs his fingers into the back of Thorn’s knee, a sharp stab like teeth that doesn’t actually do any physical damage, not without the vibroblade that he keeps tucked in his vambraces. It just hurts like hell.

And it throws off the nerves.

Dogma collapses onto the floor, laughing without breath as Thorn manages to finally pin him for Rex’s full count.

Thorn lets him go, grinning that he’s getting his way. Then he stands up.

And falls right on his face.

Dogma struggles up, taking Kix’s arm because the medic is somehow already across the room to start scolding him. He’s grinning, though. “You won, vod,” he tells Thorn. “Was it worth it?”

Thorn sits up, gritting his teeth and looking incredulous. “When you said you learned from the best…”

Dogma knows what he’s talking about. CCs, especially promoted CCs, get a round with the Prime at the beginning of their final standard training. CT-ARCs get it with the Alphas. It’s to make them humble.

Rex is looking at him like he’s a whole different person, which Dogma guesses isn’t wrong. That stuff, the stuff with the orar’bevise, has always been more for Daysh.

All of the vode in the room are quiet as Kix deposits Dogma on a bench with another water before he goes to help Thorn up.

Dogma downs half the bottle. “So, I’ll ask again,” he says lowly as Kix is starting to take their numbers to make sure they didn’t strain anything important in that insanity. “Was it worth it?”

Thorn glares at him. “Where’s your damn commlink.”

Dogma flops over to reach for where he left his bag. Echo, barely less than the puddle from earlier, helpfully brings it over. He pulls out his holopad and hands it to the commander.

Thorn groans. “Scouts,” he grumbles. He plugs in a string of numbers, saves it under Fox’s name, then pairs it to his own holocomm unit. “I’ll deliver this.”

“Sure, vod, just don’t stress your knee,” Dogma grins.

“I’ll fix it once you two are cooled down enough for me to actually work,” Kix gripes. “You, vod’ika, are about to be a GAR sensation,” he says, pointing angrily at Dogma.

Ah, yeah. Recording it for his pyre. “How far is it?”

“Commander Cody is the comm that Rex is taking right now,” Kix says blithely. “I’m sure Jan’buir will get it soon enough, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“Chakaar,” Thorn grumbles. “Didn’t think Prime was ever interest in CTs.”

Kix glances askance at the commander. “I don’t think you’d enjoy what made him get interested in us,” he says, a beat after Yustbaar appears like he was always there.

Yustbaar tilts his helmet to Dogma, barely a moment of acknowledgement, before Kix’s eyes pass startheft and the medic is digging his finger’s into Commander Thorn’s calf with a vengeance.

“Kark, that hurts,” Thorn whines.

Yustbaar-and-Kix look askance at Dogma. “Don’t be a little bitch,” the two grit out as one. Something snaps like a cord through the aether, a little bolt of lightning, Thorn yelping, but it fixes the damage and the startheft bleeds out. No one noticed—Dogma can tell—the startheft or the way Kix’s lightning tattoo went white gold.

“Don’t do that again,” Kix tells Thorn, but not Dogma. After all, that’s something that could save Dogma’s life. He’s not going to ban _him_ from it. “And don’t overstress it.”

“Got it,” Thorn grits out. “Hey Rex’ika, what do you feed these mir’shebs?”

**Author's Note:**

> So. Dogma's mention of a vibroblade. Yeah that area of the knee, from my layman's knowledge, would not be fun to get a vibrating blade through. Considering the tendons, ligaments, and nerves there. ...*eyes*
> 
> Orar'bevise, weapon of my own devising as it may be, is based on staff fighting, dancing, and tae kwan do. Considering my background, it takes a lot more from dancing and blitz staff fighting (basically untrained). I'm familiar but less so with traditional staff fighting and tae kwan do. But considering the actual weapon is known for being able to send broken sound waves to the point of causing pressure damage, I think I'm safe.
> 
> Finally, I only have one more backlog of this series after this. I set aside this week to work on it, but I've ended up spending way more time on my original fiction. Still, I've got prompts for myself stored if I ever feel like poking at them more... Thank y'all so much for reading so far. Fingers crossed I'll get back to it one day!!


End file.
